Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Book Nerds Unite

If you haven't "friended" me on goodreads and you're a book nerd like me, you should be ashamed.  Seriously.  Stomp really hard with your right foot on your left food (or vice versa).  You deserve it.

One of my favorite "me-time" activities is to go to Barnes and Noble, order a yummy Starbucks 16 oz. skim caramel sauce latte or 16 oz. skim pumpkin spice latte (yes, 16 oz., I will not conform to your asinine sizes Starbucks!  But I will drink your delicious lattes....), and browse the shelves for new books to read.

When I first started this practice, it was pre-digital age.  Ok, not really but pre-full-on-digital age.  I would walk around the store with a little scrap of paper and a pen, jotting down the book titles and authors that I wanted to read.  I'd check out my library's catalog later to place holds on the books I wanted.

From this point, I moved on to the cell phone.  I would save text message drafts with title and author information.  Once I'd procured the book, I'd erase the title from my text messages.  If you find old cell phones strewn about my apartment, I guarantee there will be a few messages with random books I could never find at my library to read.

Enter now.  I've been on goodreads since 2007, but just started to really utilize it over the last year.  Since I'm sooooooooooo tech savvy, and now have a smart phone (yayzies!) naturally I had to download the goodreads app.  Usually I just use it to update my page number when I get done reading on my lunch break, but the other night I started to look at the other functions available.  My world was turned upside down when I discovered that it had a BARCODE SCANNER.

ZOMG!  This now makes my book searching and ever growing "to-read" list so much easier (and fun!  Yes, I'm a nerd).

I have a goal of reading one book a week for 2011.  As of right now, I'm a few books ahead of my goal, but I'm concerned that my "for fun" reading will slide back dramatically once school starts up.  In the meantime, feel free to recommend some books that I have to add to my to-read list just in case I can squeeze in a few minutes of nerdery. :)

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This weekend I got up at insane o'clock (for me) 5:15am to get ready for my 12 mile long run.  The last time I got up that early to run it was for Fargoooooooo.  My alarm still has Sub 4 as it's title.  Le sigh.  Since our bike trail is under construction I did a 4 mile hillier route that looped back to my place and then a 8 mile out and back on the trail.  Thank God I looped back at my apartment.  My shirt was sopping wet after 4 miles, so I kindly bid it adieu.  I had some weird stomach pains randomly during the run, but other than that it was a great day for a run.  It was insanely warm and humid, and at one point I thought we were going to have a massive storm, but I survived. 

I did 12 miles in 1:55:12 for a pace of 9:36.

When I got home I ditched my sopping wet clothes for some dry ones while I stretched and I started to hear a leak in my bathroom.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat.  I stomped in there to see what the problem was, and then laughed/was appalled when I realized it was actually my running shorts dripping sweat in to the tub.  Hawt.

8 comments:

kimi said...

Yay book nerd. I love being a book nerd. I'm in love with my kindle too.

Jen Feeny said...

Oh no what have you done?!?!?!? You can't introduce me to stuff like this, I already have a serious booknerdery problem!!! I don't need an app for this... or do I?!?!?

Kier said...

My running clothes have been so gross lately that I have been rinsing them right after and hanging them over my shower rod before washing them. Ick.

I really should check out that book site!

Jena said...

WHY did you announce this barcode scanner app..whhhhy???? My phone will be overloaded with barcodes of books i'll never be able to find in my library because they are still stuck in the 90's buying maeve binchy, and that one author that write all about cats. I don't think they believe in buying new books.
anyways. thanks a lot.

J said...

Love the goodreads app but I do not use it enough! I get tons of great book ideas for your book reads!

Anonymous said...

I am a full fledged book nerd, but have never heard of goodreads! Ahh, what is wrong with me? My favorite thing is also going to B&N and just browsing. And then getting my books fo free at the library.

Anonymous said...

I JUST found your blog, but I'm adding you on Goodreads. I remember the good old days of texting book titles to myself. Goodreads is a billionty times more awesome!

Jess A @cajunrunnerjess said...

I LOVE my goodreads and I use it for those same reasons! I used to take pictures of the books in the stores then add it to my list later. But a barcode scanner?? I had no idea about that. I use a Blackberry and so far there hasn't been an app that I know of (that sucks) so I have been viewing the site off of my phone. A book a week is pretty awesome! I was doing so much better with reading until I bought my Blackberry a few months ago and also before I got involved so much in the blogging and now Twittering! LOL! I need to focus!!